The Zeal of the Convert Revisited

Beider, Nadia

doi:10.1111/jssr.12698

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…According to data from the World Values Survey, the proportion of the global population identifying as religious nones doubled over the last forty years, and in Europe that proportion tripled, from 10.5 per cent to 30.2 per cent, over the same period (Balazka, 2020). In the United States, where religious identity is highly unstable (Beider, 2021), the proportion of nones increased at a more rapid pace, rising from about 15 per cent to about 23 per cent of the adult population in the span of only seven years, between and 2014(Pew Research Center, 2012a. While these figures are striking, it is not at all clear what to make of them.…”

Section: Religious Nones: a Global Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

African and Not Religious: The State of Research on Sub-Saharan Religious Nones and New Scholarly Horizons

Gez¹,

Beider

Dickow

2021

Africa Spectrum

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Sub-Saharan African societies are widely seen as highly religious. However, at least 30 million Sub-Saharan Africans identify themselves as “religious nones” and are supposedly not affiliated with any religious tradition. While research interest in religious nones has been growing in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, there is a dearth of literature on nones in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper, we offer an overview of this understudied subject and dwell on key challenges for studying African nones, including preconceived notions and structural oppositions. We further muse on the identity of African nones and consider differences from the characteristics established concerning Western nones. The article draws on quantitative data from across the region (primarily from Afrobarometer and Pew Research Center) and supplements them with interview data collected in Chad, Kenya, and South Africa.

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Section: Religious Nones: a Global Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

African and Not Religious: The State of Research on Sub-Saharan Religious Nones and New Scholarly Horizons

Gez¹,

Beider

Dickow

2021

Africa Spectrum

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“…In some studies with predominantly Christian samples, converts have been found to be more religiously committed and engaged (Pew Research Center, 2009; Suh & Russell, 2015) compared to lifelong believers. However, others have found no difference in R/S between converts and lifelong believers (Beider, 2021).…”

Section: The Zeal Of a Convertmentioning

confidence: 97%

Vulnerable—Not zealous: Muslim converts experience greater distress when experiencing religious struggle.

McLaughlin¹,

Ahmad²,

Rodriguez³

et al. 2022

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

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Muslim converts are an understudied group whose mental health needs are largely unknown, although they are often viewed as more zealous than lifelong believers. While research shows that greater religiousness/ spirituality (R/S) is associated with better mental health for Muslims living in the United States (MLUS), it is unclear how this may apply to converts. Our study, comprised of 350 MLUS (n = 77 converts) acquired via an online panel aggregate, utilized multigroup structural equation modeling to assess the impact of adaptive (e.g., positive coping) and maladaptive (i.e., religious struggle and punishing Allah reappraisals [PAR]) Islamic R/S on psychological distress across conversion status. Converts were not more zealous than their counterparts, endorsing lower adaptive R/S scores. Surprisingly, greater adaptive R/S was associated with greater psychological distress in general. As expected, greater PAR and religious struggle were associated with greater psychological distress, yet the relationship between religious struggle and distress was stronger in converts compared to lifelong Muslims. These findings suggest that highly distressed MLUS may be especially in need of psychological services, as studies have demonstrated adaptive R/S alone has not been enough to reduce distress. Second, converts may be especially vulnerable to crises of faith when compared with lifelong Muslims, which may be missed if clinicians assume a higher level of "zealousness" due to a common but potentially inaccurate belief. Muslim converts may benefit from therapy that aims to better integrate them into the Muslim community and uncovers and helps to alleviate stressors associated with shifts in religious identity. Public Significance StatementThis is the second study to demonstrate that Muslim converts living in the United States do not demonstrate greater zealousness compared to lifelong believers, and to the contrary, indicated lower levels of adaptive religiousness/spirituality (R/S). This study extends this work further, finding Muslim converts seem especially vulnerable to religious struggle and would likely benefit from therapies that take R/S factors into account.

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“…Furthermore, childhood socialization influences adult religiosity even in cases of religious switching, with signs of continuity across identity ruptures in the form of a persistent residue of the prior identity (Ebaugh, 1988 ). 1 Thus, converts raised as nones are less religiously committed than are lifelong affiliates, while those raised in strict traditions, such as Evangelical Protestant and historically Black Protestant denominations, tend to be more so (Beider, 2021 ). Childhood affiliation leaves an imprint on adult religiosity (Bullivant, 2016 ; Schwadel et al., 2021 ; Van Tongeren et al., 2021 ), with the effect perhaps more noticeable among disaffiliates.…”

Section: Theoretical Considerations and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious residue: The impact of childhood religious socialization on the religiosity of nones in France, Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden

Beider

2022

British Journal of Sociology

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One of the distinguishing features of religious life in Western Europe in recent decades has been the sharp increase in the proportion of people who identify as unaffiliated with any religious tradition (religious nones). Non‐affiliation entails a rejection of religious belonging, not the absence of all religious belief and practice; yet the determinants of religiosity among nones have not been fully explored. Drawing on data from the 1998–2018 ISSP surveys in four West European countries (France, Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden), I test the impact of childhood religious socialization on the religiosity of unaffiliated adults by comparing lifelong nones, who were never religiously affiliated, with disaffiliates, who were raised within a religious tradition and have since exited organized religious life. Disaffiliates are consistently more religious than lifelong nones due to religious residue from childhood, with greater residue found among those who were more religiously committed as children. Religious decline among the unaffiliated over time, combined with the increasing proportion of lifelong nones and second‐generation lifelong nones who lack even an inherited, minimal religious residue, suggest that secularization will gather momentum.

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The Zeal of the Convert Revisited

Cited by 7 publications

References 53 publications

African and Not Religious: The State of Research on Sub-Saharan Religious Nones and New Scholarly Horizons

African and Not Religious: The State of Research on Sub-Saharan Religious Nones and New Scholarly Horizons

Vulnerable—Not zealous: Muslim converts experience greater distress when experiencing religious struggle.

Religious residue: The impact of childhood religious socialization on the religiosity of nones in France, Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden

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